Snowboard Construction Materials: A Comprehensive Guide

Each manufacturer has slightly different methods for making snowboards, but the basic structure remains very similar. Let's delve into the materials and construction techniques that shape a snowboard's performance.

Construction Types

There are several main types of snowboard construction:

• ABS Sidewall / Sandwich Construction: In this method, each layer of the snowboard is laid flat, and an ABS sidewall is placed on the sides to protect the core.
• Cap Construction: The fiberglass layer and topsheet are brought down over the core to seal the edge.
• Half-Cap Construction: A hybrid of the other two constructions where the fiberglass layer comes down around the core, and the topsheet comes part way around to join a sidewall. This design provides good pressure transmission to the edges and is reasonably light and snappy.

Core Materials

The core is the central structure of a snowboard, which determines many of its characteristics.

• Wood: Most snowboard cores are made of strips of laminated hardwood like beech, birch, aspen, bamboo, or a mixture of them. Wood cores are made of strips of laminated hardwood that run along the length of the board. The strips used can be made of different woods, arranged in different patterns, and have areas that use other materials like foam. This is done to give different strengths, flexes, and weights to different areas of a snowboard, creating different properties and characteristics. The laminated wood strips are glued together and then precisely CNC machine cut into shape.
• Foam: Not used as the main material so often anymore as boards tended to lose their camber quickly and were a bit soft, lacking performance.

Fiberglass Layers

The fiberglass layers are there to help increase board stiffness and stop the board from deforming.

Topsheet

The topsheet is the part of the snowboard that you see on the top. This is where the graphics are, and is the protection for the inner parts of the snowboard.

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There are a few ways the graphics are applied:

• Encapsulation: Where the graphics are printed onto paper, cloth, or a similar material and put under a clear top sheet, or clear lacquer on the topsheet. This leaves the graphics under or inside the topsheet, but able to be seen through the topsheet material.
• Sublimation: Where the graphics are fused into the materials that make the topsheet using special inks, suitable plastics, and heat.

Base Materials

Bases are made of P-Tex, a polyethylene plastic. Most base materials will be followed by a number (i.e., sintered 2000). This number refers to the molecular weight of the polyethylene.

• Extruded: This is where the base material is melted and then cut into shape. Extruded bases are cheap to make and low maintenance but are less durable and slower.
• Sintered: This is where the base material is ground into powder, heated, pressed, and sliced into shape. Sintered bases are more expensive to make but are more durable and faster. Sintered bases can also have graphite and other materials in them, this makes them even faster and more durable. Graphite is added because it is conductive. As a snowboard slides, static charges form between the base and the snow which increases friction. The graphite helps dissipate the static charges reducing friction and making the base faster.

Edges

Snowboard edges are made of steel or stainless steel and are held into the board with T-shaped inserts which are built into them. There are 2 types of edges, full wrap and partial wrap.

• Full Wrap Edges: Go all the way around the snowboard and join at one end. This is the strongest type of edge for a snowboard, although it can be hard to repair if damaged badly.
• Partial Wrap Edges: Are where the edges just run along the sides of the board where they will make contact with the snow.

Metal inserts are stainless steel inserts that are built into a snowboard for the binding holes.

Resin

All the individual parts of the snowboard are held together with resin.

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Wax

Wax is applied to the base of snowboards so that they create less friction with the snow and can slide faster. There are 2 types of wax, hydrocarbon waxes and fluorocarbon waxes.

• Hydrocarbon Waxes: Are paraffin-based and are the most common type of wax used. They penetrate the deepest into P-Tex bases and last the longest when applied with a hot waxing iron.
• Fluorocarbon Waxes: Differ from hydrocarbon waxes in that they are made of carbon molecules with negatively charged fluorine atoms, as opposed to the neutrally charged hydrogen atoms in hydrocarbon waxes. This repels water and dirt better, reducing friction and making fluorocarbon waxes faster. Fluorocarbon waxes are generally only used by racers though, as they are expensive and require more preparation to use.

Waxes are designed for use with different temperatures of snow. There are many all-temperature waxes intended to work in all conditions, but really they are just mid-range temperature waxes. The main difference between the waxes for different temperatures is how hard they are. A harder wax creates more friction, so the softest wax possible wants to be used, but the wax still needs to be harder than the snow to stop the base from gripping and increasing friction.

When a base slides along the snow, static charges are created which increase friction. Having a graphite additive in the wax helps conduct these charges, producing better anti-static properties.

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